To venture back into vinyl or not,...that is the question.

I don't know anything about turntables under $500. I'm sure that is lots of info on this site. I have 100s of LPS, subscribe to QoBuz, and use an SACD/CD player. However:

Sometimes SQ depends on the LP mix and the CD mix. A friend brought over a B’way show album original cutting very early stereo and it sounded a bit strange to me. Pure nostalgia for her. I got a copy of the ’new’ CD that had been remixed from the same tapes decades later. I had her leave the room before playing/selecting the CD but left the record spinning. She was amazed at the sound and asked why it was so good all of a sudden.

I made her a present of the CD.

If you listen to historic performances originally captured from off the air or wire recordings such as Charlie Parker often the digital cleanup on a CD is quite impressive. If you could find the 78s/33s I doubt they would sound as good.

I might add that the quality of the reproduction chain I use is beyond reproach so it does not enter into the conclusion.

09-19-2020 10:

52amNO

do streaming and pretend it sounds better.LPs will always be KING!!


YUP. Have to agree with Ed!  

There are two stone/resin Kenwood TT with Infinity Black Widow arms ( 1 with a Grado wood body cartridge ) FS at Stereo Unlimited in San Diego.....$500

you will need  to convince them to ship.....

@tomic601 

IIRC, those are the 500 series Kenwood. With a Grado wooden cart, that would be a steal. Even with shipping.

After just going down this same path, but not having a Linn as my old table, my personal feeling is to find something satisfying at $500 is going to be tough. A used rig as Tomic suggested might be the best way to go vs new.

$500 won't even buy you a decent digital, let alone a turntable that would be worthy of playback through your CJ's ART preamp. Now you want something that serves as a 'background' music, sure $500 is a good chunk of change :-)

Thanks for humoring us!